Roman Crimea

Anonymous city-ruler in the Bosporan Kingdom, Roman vassal state in the Crimea (180)

Roman Crimea is the area of the Crimean Peninsula that was under control of the Roman Empire and mostly coincided with the Bosporan Kingdom. For nearly five centuries it was a Roman "Client State", but under emperor Nero it was briefly an area of the Roman Province of Moesia inferior (from 62 to 68).

History

Rome started to dominate the Crimea peninsula (then called Taurica) in the 1st century BCE. The initial area of their penetration was mainly in eastern Crimea (Bosporus kingdom) and in the western Greek city of Chersonesos. The mountain section of internal Crimea was only nominally under Roman rule.

Indeed, in ancient times Crimea was known as "Chersonesus Taurica", from the name of a tribe, the Tauri, who were descendants of the Cimmerians. Many Greek colonists settled in Taurica: their most renowned colony was Chersonesos. In 114 BC the "Bosporus kingdom" accepted the overlordship of Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, as a protection from tribes of Scythians. For nearly five centuries after the defeat of Mithridates by the Roman Pompey, Crimea was under the suzerainty of Rome.

The main Roman settlement was Charax, a castrum probably built around 60-65, and the main naval Roman base was in Chersonesos.

When the Romans arrived to Taurica, they set up their camp and built a fortress and a temple of Jupiter Dolichenus on the coast of the harbor of actual Balaklava, then called Symbolon Limen.

Tiberius Julius Aspurgus (8 BC - 38) founded a line of Bosporan Kings which endured with certain interruptions until 341. Originally called Aspurgus, he adopted the Roman names "Tiberius Julius" because he received Roman citizenship and enjoyed the patronage of the first two Roman Emperors, Augustus and Tiberius. All of the following kings adopted these two Roman names followed by a third name, mostly of Pontic, Thracian or Sarmatian origin. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout the kingdom period, which included gold staters bearing portraits of the respective Roman Emperors.

Emperor Nero prepared in 67 a military expedition: he wanted to conquer for Rome all the northern shores of the Black sea from actual Georgia-Azerbaijan to what is now Romania-Moldavia, but his death stopped it. For this reason he probably put Taurica under direct Roman rule and created the Charax castrum. He extended the Roman province of Lower Moesia to Tyras, Olbia and Taurica (the peninsula of Crimea).

Taurica enjoyed a relative golden period under Roman leadership during the 2nd century CE, with huge commerce of wheat, clothing, wine and slaves.

The prosperous merchant-towns (of Taurica), permanently in need of military protection amidst a flux of barbaric peoples, held to Rome as the advanced posts to the main army....(during that century) Roman troops were stationed in the peninsula, perhaps a division of the Pontic fleet, certainly a detachment of the Moesian army, (other garrisons in Panticapaeum and Chersonesos); their presence even in small numbers showed to the barbarians that the dreaded legionary stood behind (the Bosporanum Regnum).

The region was temporarily conquered by the Goths in 250, but the Byzantine Empire took again control of the region under Justinian I.

The "Regnum Bosporanum" during Roman emperor Trajan conquests

In the 6th century, probably at the end of the reign of Justinian I, the status of Roman Crimea changed. Taurica became the Province of Chersonesos, which also included Bosporos and the southern coast of Crimea.

This enlargement of Byzantine Taurica resulted in the elevation of the ranks of its governors. In the second half of the 6th century the military and civil authorities in the region were entrusted to the military deputy, "doux Chersonos".

Furthermore, the city of Chersonnesos was used by the Romans as a place of banishment: St. Clement of Rome was exiled hither and first preached to Gospel; another exile was Justinian II, who is said to have destroyed the city in revenge.

Most of Roman Crimea fell under Khazar overlordship in the late 7th century.

In the mid-8th century the rebellious Crimean Goths were put down by the Khazars and their city, Doros (modern Mangup) occupied. A Khazar "tudun" (ruler) was resident at Chersonesos already in 690, despite the fact that this town was nominally subject to the Byzantine Empire.

Anyway, the Byzantine emperors controlled the southern shores of the Crimea peninsula until the 13th century.

We have a considerable series of Roman coins from the 1st century BC to about 300, and also some of the Byzantine date.

Charax

The largest Roman military settlement in Crimea was Charax It was sited on a four-hectare area at the western ridge of "Ai Todor", close to the modern Yalta castle of Swallow's Nest.

When in AD 62-66 the Roman garrisons were installed in Taurica, Charax became one of their strongholds. The Romans built there a fortress and stationeed a sub-unit (vexillatio) of "Ravenna squadron". Charax was a very important strategic point, because it allowed the Romans to establish control over the navigation along the Crimean coast.

The military camp was fully developed under Vespasian with the intention of protecting Chersonesos and other Bosporean trade emporiums from the Scythians. By the end of the 1st century, the Roman forces were evacuated from the Crimea peninsula.

Several decades later the camp was restored by a vexillatio of the Legio I Italica: it hosted a detachment of the Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century. In this century new stone walls were added to the fortress and a new Roman road was built, connecting Charax to Chersonesos.

The camp was abandoned by the Romans at the end of the 3rd century.

Roman Client Kings

Ruins of Panticapaeum, main city of the Bosporan kingdom during Roman times

These are the Roman client kings of the Bosporan Kingdom:

• Pharnaces 64 BC - 47 BC
• Mithridates I 47 BC - 44 BC
• Asander 47 BC, then 44 BC - 17 BC
• Scribonius 17 BC - 16 BC
• Dynamis with Asander 47 BC, then 44 BC - 17 BC, then with Polemon from 16 BC until her death in 14 BC
• Polemon 16 BC - 8 BC
• Aspurgus 8 BC - 38
• Mithridates II 38 - 46
• Cotys I 46 - 63
• Roman Province 63 - 68
• Rhescuporis I 68 - 90
• Sauromates I 90 - 123
• Cotys II 123 - 132
• Rhoemetalces 132 - 153
• Eupator 153 - 174
• Sauromates II 174 - 210/1
• Rhescuporis II 210/1 - 227
• Rhescuporis III 210/1 - 227
• Cotys III 227 - 235
• Sauromates III 229 - 232
• Rhescuporis IV 233 - 235
• Ininthimeus 235 - 240
• Rhescuporis V 240 - 276
• Pharsanzes 253 - 254
• Synges 258 - 276
• Teiranes 275 - 279
• Sauromates IV 276
• Theothorses 278 - 309
• Rhescuporis VI 303 - 342
• Rhadamsades 308 - 323

Bibliography

• Carter, Joseph Coleman; Mack, Glenn Randall. Crimean Chersonesos: City, Chora, Museum, and Environs. David Brown Book. Austin, 2003 ISBN 0-9708879-2-2
• Jochen Fornasier and Burkhard Böttger. Das Bosporanische Reich. Mainz, 2002 ISBN 3-8053-2895-8.
• Mommsen, Theodore. The Provinces of the Roman Empire. Barnes & Noble Books. New York, 1996 ISBN 0-7607-0145-8

See also

• Bosporan Kingdom
• Strait of Kerch
• Roman Empire
• Charax
• Taurica
• List of Kings of Cimmerian Bosporus